#49: Shanghai Soup Dumplings

after 2 weeks of delicious shanghai soup dumplings (first from dumpling kitchen in SF, and second from hung's kitchen in San Ramon), i started craving more and more dumplings. i don't often eat soup dumplings, but these two visits revived my love of soup dumplings. Enough so, that I decided to try to make some myself. I heard they were quite difficult to make - but i was ready to take on the challenge (note: now that i've made them...i realized that people are right - these dumplings are quite challenging to make!). the recipe comes from epicurious.

i managed to take photos throughout the process so i figured i would share them this time around. let me say first - this was a 2 day process.

Day 1, 8:00pm-12:00am. Fred and I went to Ranch 99 and picked up the essential ingredients to make the soup base. I returned home and immediately started on the soup. I combined chicken wings & drumsticks, pork bones, green onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and water. i let the broth simmer for about 3 hours and then boiled the broth to reduce. after the broth reduced i added knox gelatin and poured into a pan.




Day 2, 8:00am. i removed the refrigerated broth which had now gelatinized into aspic. i cut the aspic into small chunks. i then made the pork/shrimp mixture and added the aspic.



Day 2, 4:00pm. Fred came over and we got ready to assemble the soup dumplings. the recipe yielded 75 dumplings. i thought that was a bit too much, but we could always freeze them. after all was said and done we ended up with nearly 180 dumplings! needless to say, the majority of them are still in the freezer. we steamed the dumplings on top of some cabbage and then gobbled them up!

here's a few comments on the dumplings:

• i think we overcooked the dumplings and waited too long to eat them. the tops of the dumplings were dry and doughy
  
• the dumpling wrappers may have been too thin because the soup leaked out of some of the dumplings
• do not add shrimp to the pork mixture. my taste buds are more familiar with the pork mixture. adding shrimp was not as tasty for me
  

#48: Tartine's Chocolate Pudding

A couple weeks ago I was in San Francisco visiting a friend in the mission district. she conveniently lives 2 blocks away from tartine, so of course, we had to stop by for a late afternoon snack. i picked up a huckleberry tart to take home but ordered the chocolate pudding to dine in. i really like pudding and mousse so i was eager to try a tartine style pudding. the pudding was absolutely delicious - not too sweet - but still rich and indulgent enough for me.

i found an online recipe for the pudding from the tartine cookbook so i decided to try it out. i had never made pudding before so this was definitely something new to me. the recipe is pretty simple to follow but the most important step to the pudding is to whisk the pudding like crazy to make it smooth and creamy (beware of chocolate pudding curds). after chilling the pudding, i served it with a dollop of fresh whipped cream and dark chocolate shavings. i'll definitely try out this recipe again soon...absolutely delicious and easy to make :)